| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Faraday as a Discoverer by John Tyndall: Now it was in those books, in the hours after work, that I found
the beginning of my philosophy.
There were two that especially helped me, the "Encyclopaedia
Britannica," from which I gained my first notions of electricity,
and Mrs. Marcet's "Conversation on Chemistry," which gave me my
foundation in that science.
'Do not suppose that I was a very deep thinker, or was marked as a
precocious person. I was a very lively imaginative person, and
could believe in the "Arabian Nights" as easily as in the
"Encyclopaedia." But facts were important to me, and saved me.
I could trust a fact, and always cross-examined an assertion.
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar by Edgar Rice Burroughs: He freed his hands first, and then commenced upon the
knots at his ankles.
"I can do the rest," said the Belgian. "I have a small
pocketknife which they overlooked when they searched
me," and in this way he succeeded in ridding himself of
the ape-man's attentions that he might find and open
his little knife and cut the thong which fastened the
pouch about Chulk's shoulder, and transfer it from his
waist band to the breast of his shirt. Then he rose
and approached Tarzan.
Once again had avarice claimed him. Forgotten were the
Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar |
